Some of those who backed the project will now have a hand in shaping the game.

“Those fans are now part of our design and development process going forward with Shroud of the Avatar,” says Garriott. “We will be listening to all of them as we go about making the kind of fantasy RPG that I really enjoyed making in the earlier part of my career. But this is really only the start. We will continue to keep our own crowdfunding store open to bring in more funds to help us add even more features to the game.”

Shroud of the Avatar is being developed by Garriott and his team at Portalarium. The story is being written by New York Times best-selling author Tracy Hickman, and will be a “spiritual successor” to Garriott’s fantasy role-playing games according to the Kickstarter page.

Those who would still like to back the project can on the game’s website. The PC title is expected to release in 2014.

In case some of you missed it, Richard Garriott issued a statement a while back regarding the PC Gamer interview in which many of his comments were taken out of context and generally made him seem like a bit of a jerk.
You can read a copy of his statement here:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/27127/Garriott-Rebuts-Game-Designers-Suck-Quote